knownever: A more enjoyable, shorter, and less allegorical story of sailing life, although there aren't any whales. The author of this one kind of looks down on whalers. All together a more jaunty sea tale.

alaskayo: Melville's heir struggles to close his relationship to his preceding literary genius. Click the link above, read what you can, and get yourself hooked on one of the most critically-adored yet criminally-underread novels written in a century defined by self-analysis and experimentation.… (more)

WilfGehlen: Camus was greatly influenced by Melville and in The Myth of Sisyphus mentions Moby-Dick as a truly absurd work. Reading Moby-Dick with Camus' absurd in mind gives a deeper, and very different insight than provided by the usual emphasis on Ahab's quest for revenge.… (more)

GaryPatella: Compared to Moby Dick, The Confidence Man is a much lighter read. But after ploughing through Moby Dick, this may be a welcome change. It is not as profound, but you also don't have to struggle through any of it. This is worth reading.

LamontCranston: I once heard Harlan Ellison talking about how some works are unadaptable into film and he cited Dune and Moby-Dick
And thinking about it, both works use their story telling as platforms for ruminations on well everything about life

I won't say this is a terrible book. It's full of wonderfully thematic and significant description and the eerie, almost science fiction direction of the story is compelling overall. I think the reason this book did not appeal to me was because Melville tends, frequently, to get distracted from his primary story. To get to the climax of Moby Dick, the reader has to wade through a ton of I'm sure very accurate information on how whales were captured and rendered for their several products back in the day. Only, those points aren't particularly interesting when they shove a grand vengeance plot into the background. They could be compacted into far fewer words and the story would benefit from the editing. ( )

I have very mixed feelings about Moby Dick. There are many beautiful passages tucked into this epic adventure of Ahab VS The Whale, that being said, there is also a lot of unnecessary (imo) content.

Melville has many side chapters that are usually only a few pages in length, but they are soley focused on something like the skull of a Sperm Whale or the difference between a couple of species of whale, or what have you. While I do think some of these chapters add to the epicness of whaling and they help the layperson understand the gritty adventure that Ahab and his crew are voyaging, I found much of this content to be very dull.

I found myself wanting to give up multiple times throughout this one, but Ahab is no quitter and he doesn't allow for it from any of his crew. "There's no crying in whaling!?!" or something like that. In the end, I'm glad I stuck with it, if nothing else to prove to myself that I could stick with it to the bitter end, just like Ahab. I do think that there are enough enjoyable pieces with the shakespearian dialogue, gritty adventure, and the all-inspiring Ahab that it is worth grinding through. ( )

With a formidable reputation built up over hundred-and-sixty-five years as an allegory about one man's obsessive quest for revenge against a whale, this seeming-slog of a novel is an utterly entertaining and informative romp through the history of whaling, with the inevitable occasional dull chapters and pacing issues. On one hand, there are metaphors and biblical allusions - which whizzed right by me unplucked - and historical details, but on the other, there are playful subversions of the novel-structure and just generally a good ol' sea adventure from the viewpoint of its sarcastic narrator with the modern sensibility.

It's difficult to approach a book which has entered the cultural subconscious as much as Moby-Dick. It emphasises the whale, the obsessed, and Ishmael but even though the presence of the whale looms large over the course of the novel, it's not until the last hundred pages of the book - and even then, only in brief cameos - the eponymous character physically appears. Perhaps it is due to this expectation, the already off-kilter pacing of the entire novel is flipped overboard, but thankfully there are so many other things happening than the pacing, that it is impossible to not find something you can enjoy.

What I enjoyed were the Ishmael's wordplay, friendship with Queequeg - I initially had concerns that the character Queequeg was to be developed in the usual old-white-author way, a "savage" exoticised, useful and stronger than the others but is merely a pawn to be killed off for the convenience of the other white characters - and the facts about whaling - I've never thought about narwhal(e)s and porpoises as being clearly in the whale family, nor the actual immensity of their sizes. The details of lowering the boats, killing the whales, skinning the whale - they peeled it like a continuous strip of an apple, who knew! - , method of extracting the sperm, etc, were engrossing, even if they are repulsive in light of our current ethical sensibilities, immuned here only by the book's context.

What I cherish most of all from the novel, is that I was so fascinated by all the whaling facts, I expounded them to the nearest person at the time, my mother. At which point, I found out that she has actually spotted whales many times in her childhood, and even beached whales, accompanied by some details of her childhood. It was not something that would've come up in everyday conversation - even though it'd be a great conversation-starter - and I'm grateful that Moby-Dick made it happen. ( )

There are passages of true brilliance in this book. There is a gripping narrative in this book. Unfortunately, there is a lot of indulgent and overblown blather in this book as well. Those who hail it as a classic and urge it on their friends are the same kind of people who insist that no American has really lived until he has visited Yellowstone National Park and seen its wonders -- wonders there are, and it is they that stick in the visitor's fond memory, but what is forgotten are the miles and miles and miles of monotonous stands of lodgepole pine on every side. Kind of like the sea. ( )

There Leviathan, Hugest of living creatures, in the deepStretch'd like a promontory sleeps or swims,And seems a moving land; and at his gillsDraws in, and at his breath spouts out a sea. PARADISE LOST

Dedication

In token

of my admiration for his genius,

This Book is Inscribed

to

Nathaniel Hawthorne.

First words

Call me Ishmael. Some years ago - never mind how long precisely - having little or no money in my purse, and nothing particular to interest me on shore, I thought I would sail about a little and see the watery part of the world.

Quotations

Whenever I find myself growing grim about the mouth; whenever it is a damp, drizzly November in my soul; whenever I find myself involuntarily pausing before coffin warehouses, and bringing up the rear of every funeral I meet; and especially whenever my hypos get such an upper hand of me, that it requires a strong moral principle to prevent me from deliberately stepping into the street, and methodically knocking people's hats off — then, I account it high time to get to sea as soon as I can. ...from Chapter 1 : Loomings

"If they but knew it, almost all men in their degree, some time or other, cherish nearly the same feelings towards the ocean with me."

All visible objects, man, are but as pasteboard masks. But in each event--in the living act, the undoubted deed—there, some unknown but still reasoning thing put forth the mouldings of its features from behind the unreasoning mask. If man will strike, strike through the mask! How can the prisoner reach outside except by thrusting through the wall? To me, the white whale is that wall, shoved near to me. Sometimes I think there's naught beyond. But 'tis enough.

To the last I grapple with thee; from hell's heart I stab at thee; for hate's sake I spit my last breath at thee.

Last words

On the second day, a sail drew near, nearer, and picked me up at last. It was the devious-cruising Rachel, that in her retracing search after her missing children, only found another orphan.

Please do not combine adaptations or abridged editions of Moby Dick with unabridged versions. Versions aimed at children are normally abridged editions and should not be combined here. Also, books ABOUT Moby Dick (such as study guides) should not be combined with the unabridged nor the abridged novel. Please keep such books as an independent work.

The ISBN 9025463312 is shared with a different work.

The Penguin Classics 150th Anniversary Ed (ISBN 0142000086) is not abridged, although that word has appeared in some user's data.

Norton Critical editions, Longman Critical editions and other scholarly editions should not be combined with the unabridged novel. The scholarly-type editions contain much additional material so they should be considered as separate works.

Over a century and a half after its publication, Moby-Dick still stands as an indisputable literary classic. It is the story of an eerily compelling madman pursuing an unholy war against a creature as vast and dangerous and unknowable as the sea itself. But more than just a novel of adventure, more than an encyclopedia of whaling lore and legend, Moby-Dick is a haunting, mesmerizing, and important social commentary populated with several of the most unforgettable and enduring characters in literature. Written with wonderfully redemptive humor, Moby-Dick is a profound and timeless inquiry into character, faith, and the nature of perception.

@greatwhitetale Call me Ishmael. You could call me something else if you want, but since that’s my name, it would make sense to call me Ishmael.

Captain obsessed with finding a whale called Moby Dick. Sounds like the meanest VD ever, if you ask me. Sorry. Old joke. Couldn’t resist.

From Twitterature: The World's Greatest Books in Twenty Tweets or Less

Moby-Dick] is an 1851 novel by Herman Melville. The story tells the adventures of the wandering sailor Ishmael and his voyage on the whaleship Pequod, commanded by Captain Ahab. Ishmael soon learns that Ahab seeks one specific whale, Moby Dick, a white whale of tremendous size and ferocity. Comparatively few whaleships know of Moby Dick, and fewer yet have encountered him. In a previous encounter, the whale destroyed Ahab's boat and bit off his leg. Ahab intends to take revenge. -- Wikipedia.… (more)